MovieTalk is a great way to present your students with a broad range of vocabulary in an engaging manner. It provides comprehensible input because students are seeing images (instead of written translations) of the structures as you describe them. It is an excellent way to provide differentiated instruction, because student will pick up on whatever they are able to based on their current level of language ability. Beginning students will pick up a few words, since most words will be new to them, and advanced students will pick up on the few new words to them and will notice grammatical constructions.
How to MovieTalk
Just imagine that instead of a reading or a story with live actors, you are circling and discussing what is visible on the screen (NOT the dialogue).
Begin by choosing a short film or a short segment of a longer film. It shouldn’t be more than five minutes long. It should be visually stimulating, with little dialogue (rather, little dialogue that is essential to the understanding of the clip). The ‘plot’ should be fairly obvious when the volume is turned off and the film is simply watched, not listened to. Typically, I choose a film that fits in with whatever structures we are currently studying, so that I can get in more repetitions of those structures. However, this is not necessary–you could choose a film just for fun that has nothing to do with what you are currently learning. The students will still acquire language as they view it!
Turn off the volume. Begin playing the clip, but pause it once the first image appears on the screen. Describe anything and everything that you see on the screen in the target language. Get repetitions of the structures using circling, personalization, and comprehension checks. Once you’ve discussed the first image sufficiently, push ‘play’, and play the film until something else happens or appears on the screen. Pause the film again, and describe what is in this new image. Circle, personalize, and check for comprehension. Continue this process–pausing and describing each new image–until you have finished the clip. (If there is a ‘twist’ at the end of the clip, you may wish to stop the clip before the film ends in order to create suspense.)
After you have finished MovieTalk for the clip, play it from the beginning with sound and without pausing. (The kids will probably mutiny if you don’t!) If you saved the ‘twist’ at the end, the kids will really be anxious to see what happens! You can discuss it after they’ve seen it.
A great resource for movie clips in addition to YouTube is Animoto.com. With Animoto you can also make your own movies! Also try this fun dog videos or go to the Ringling College of Art and Design animated short films.
6. Shower curtain map (Jason Fritze) a. Create shower curtain maps by making an over-head transparency of your desired map. Then hang the shower curtain map on the wall and project the map as large as you can on the shower curtain. Trace the map onto the shower curtain. Later you can add details like names, geographical features, etc… Make several so that all your students can gather around a map placed on the floor. b. For second language acquisition you can give your students commands like, ‘Play the guitar in Argentina’ or ‘climb the Andes mountains’. History and language courses could use it to reenact events/literary works. It’s a fantastic way to get some culture and geographic awareness when starting a unit with geographical references.
7. Brain breaks
Ear and Nose Switch (http://brainbreaks.blogspot.com/) 1. Stand up. 2. Take your right hand and grab your left ear. Keep your right arm close to your body. 3. Now take your left hand and touch your nose. 4. Uncross your arms and move your left hand to your right ear and your right hand to your nose. Your left arm should now be closest to your body. 5. Switch back and forth as fast as you can.
Thumb and Pinkie Brain Break (http://brainbreaks.blogspot.com/) 1. Take your left hand and have your fingers in and your thumb up. 2. Then take your right hand and put your thumb in and all your fingers in except your pinkie. So in other words, your thumb up and pinkie out. 3. Now switch the roles of your hands.
2 Finger Grab - Students stand in a circle with their hands held out. Each student needs to put their right pointer finger into their neighbors left palm. They must also hold their left palm up so that their other neighbor can place their index finger there. Start playing target language/content music, when the music stops (you choose when) each student tries to grab the index finger of their neighbor without having their neighbor on the opposite side grab their index finger. (Fabulously fun cross brained activity!)
I know it! (yo lo sé) – Students stand in a circle. They must repeat the 3 words, one right after the other, over and over. One student starts by saying ‘I’ and they can point to the person on their left, on their right, or make eye contact and point to someone across the circle. That person says, ‘know’ and indicates who the next person is with their finger. That person says, ‘it’ and points to another person who starts again with, ‘I’ and on and on. When someone messes up the order of the words they are ‘out’. In my class, students who are ‘out’ stand behind people who are still playing and whisper words over their shoulders in an attempt to get them out. We play Yo lo sé or I know it right before an exam. You can change the expression to any 3 target/content related words. (Props to Noah Geisel)
c. Sexy Dance - Find a fun, hip song in the target language-it makes it easier when the song tells you how to dance it. Pre-teach the vocabulary if necessary, practice it with stuffed animals, then do it to the music as a whole class!
8. Roundtable Discussion a. This activity is fantastic, particularly for upper level classes. Each student gets 3 pieces of paper with their name on it (I laminate them so they are reusable). Desks are set up in a circle or semi-circle. Students present on a topic, for example, current events, articles, etc. Following their presentation is a student lead discussion. Each time a student makes a question or comment, they hand in one of the slips of paper with their name on it to the speaker. If they make 3 comments, they will have turned in all 3 slips. By keeping separate the slips of paper that were turned in and the ones that weren’t used (collect them after the activity is done) you can calculate student participation at your convenience.
9. Yes, and… a. (take a break from “casi pero no”) Make a story grow by accepting ALL answers with a ‘yes, and…’ making a game out of how many times you can get new, accurate information.
10. Team Chunk (Ben Slavic) a. This is a Friday Funday activity in my class. It’s the perfect opportunity to review material while building camaraderie. The class is divided into teams of approximately 4 members each. They have 1 minute to select a team name and create and practice an accompanying action that they will due in unison when their team is called. For example, Las Olas (the waves) who stand up and yell ‘whoosh’ while moving one hand up and down like it's surfing. Start by asking a question related to your content. Teams will huddle together and make sure everyone knows the answer before raising their hand. The teacher will record in which order the teams raised their hands. Then, call on the first team and point to them which indicates that they must stand up, yell out their name and complete their corresponding action in complete unison. If this is completed, the teacher calls on any student in the group to say the answer. If that student responds with a correct answer, the team jumps up and lines up at a designated spot. Each team member takes 1 shot each (I use a miniature toy basketball and my trashcan). The team earns 1 point for the correct answer and an additional point for each shot made. Repeat with a new question. If a group does not jump up, yell their name, and complete their corresponding action in complete unison, they lose their turn, and you move on to team #2. If a team answers incorrectly, move on to the next team. I like to make points worth double or even triple to keep teams with lower points in the game until the very end. This is a class favorite-they often stay into their lunch period begging for more! (Special thanks to Ben Slavic for a student fav!)
Kinesthetic activities are not always the most efficient way, but they certainly are effective!
5. Movie Talk
The following description of movie talk is taken from master teacher, Martina Bex's website: http://martinabex.com/teacher-training/movietalk/
Why MovieTalk?
MovieTalk is a great way to present your students with a broad range of vocabulary in an engaging manner. It provides comprehensible input because students are seeing images (instead of written translations) of the structures as you describe them. It is an excellent way to provide differentiated instruction, because student will pick up on whatever they are able to based on their current level of language ability. Beginning students will pick up a few words, since most words will be new to them, and advanced students will pick up on the few new words to them and will notice grammatical constructions.
How to MovieTalk
Just imagine that instead of a reading or a story with live actors, you are circling and discussing what is visible on the screen (NOT the dialogue).
Begin by choosing a short film or a short segment of a longer film. It shouldn’t be more than five minutes long. It should be visually stimulating, with little dialogue (rather, little dialogue that is essential to the understanding of the clip). The ‘plot’ should be fairly obvious when the volume is turned off and the film is simply watched, not listened to. Typically, I choose a film that fits in with whatever structures we are currently studying, so that I can get in more repetitions of those structures. However, this is not necessary–you could choose a film just for fun that has nothing to do with what you are currently learning. The students will still acquire language as they view it!
Turn off the volume.
Begin playing the clip, but pause it once the first image appears on the screen.
Describe anything and everything that you see on the screen in the target language. Get repetitions of the structures using circling, personalization, and comprehension checks.
Once you’ve discussed the first image sufficiently, push ‘play’, and play the film until something else happens or appears on the screen.
Pause the film again, and describe what is in this new image. Circle, personalize, and check for comprehension. Continue this process–pausing and describing each new image–until you have finished the clip. (If there is a ‘twist’ at the end of the clip, you may wish to stop the clip before the film ends in order to create suspense.)
After you have finished MovieTalk for the clip, play it from the beginning with sound and without pausing. (The kids will probably mutiny if you don’t!) If you saved the ‘twist’ at the end, the kids will really be anxious to see what happens! You can discuss it after they’ve seen it.
A great resource for movie clips in addition to YouTube is Animoto.com. With Animoto you can also make your own movies! Also try this fun dog videos or go to the Ringling College of Art and Design animated short films.
6. Shower curtain map (Jason Fritze)
a. Create shower curtain maps by making an over-head transparency of your desired map. Then hang the shower curtain map on the wall and project the map as large as you can on the shower curtain. Trace the map onto the shower curtain. Later you can add details like names, geographical features, etc… Make several so that all your students can gather around a map placed on the floor.
b. For second language acquisition you can give your students commands like, ‘Play the guitar in Argentina’ or ‘climb the Andes mountains’. History and language courses could use it to reenact events/literary works. It’s a fantastic way to get some culture and geographic awareness when starting a unit with geographical references.
7. Brain breaks
Ear and Nose Switch (http://brainbreaks.blogspot.com/)
1. Stand up.
2. Take your right hand and grab your left ear. Keep your right arm close to your body.
3. Now take your left hand and touch your nose.
4. Uncross your arms and move your left hand to your right ear and your right hand to your nose. Your left arm should now be closest to your body.
5. Switch back and forth as fast as you can.
Thumb and Pinkie Brain Break (http://brainbreaks.blogspot.com/)
1. Take your left hand and have your fingers in and your thumb up.
2. Then take your right hand and put your thumb in and all your fingers in except your pinkie. So in other words, your thumb up and pinkie out.
3. Now switch the roles of your hands.
2 Finger Grab - Students stand in a circle with their hands held out. Each student needs to put their right pointer finger into their neighbors left palm. They must also hold their left palm up so that their other neighbor can place their index finger there. Start playing target language/content music, when the music stops (you choose when) each student tries to grab the index finger of their neighbor without having their neighbor on the opposite side grab their index finger. (Fabulously fun cross brained activity!)
I know it! (yo lo sé) – Students stand in a circle. They must repeat the 3 words, one right after the other, over and over. One student starts by saying ‘I’ and they can point to the person on their left, on their right, or make eye contact and point to someone across the circle. That person says, ‘know’ and indicates who the next person is with their finger. That person says, ‘it’ and points to another person who starts again with, ‘I’ and on and on. When someone messes up the order of the words they are ‘out’. In my class, students who are ‘out’ stand behind people who are still playing and whisper words over their shoulders in an attempt to get them out. We play Yo lo sé or I know it right before an exam. You can change the expression to any 3 target/content related words. (Props to Noah Geisel)
c. Sexy Dance - Find a fun, hip song in the target language-it makes it easier when the song tells you how to dance it. Pre-teach the vocabulary if necessary, practice it with stuffed animals, then do it to the music as a whole class!
('I Know It' down to the last 2 participants)
(2 Finger Grab before/after music stops)
8. Roundtable Discussion
a. This activity is fantastic, particularly for upper level classes. Each student gets 3 pieces of paper with their name on it (I laminate them so they are reusable). Desks are set up in a circle or semi-circle. Students present on a topic, for example, current events, articles, etc. Following their presentation is a student lead discussion. Each time a student makes a question or comment, they hand in one of the slips of paper with their name on it to the speaker. If they make 3 comments, they will have turned in all 3 slips. By keeping separate the slips of paper that were turned in and the ones that weren’t used (collect them after the activity is done) you can calculate student participation at your convenience.
9. Yes, and…
a. (take a break from “casi pero no”) Make a story grow by accepting ALL answers with a ‘yes, and…’ making a game out of how many times you can get new, accurate information.
10. Team Chunk (Ben Slavic)
a. This is a Friday Funday activity in my class. It’s the perfect opportunity to review material while building camaraderie. The class is divided into teams of approximately 4 members each. They have 1 minute to select a team name and create and practice an accompanying action that they will due in unison when their team is called. For example, Las Olas (the waves) who stand up and yell ‘whoosh’ while moving one hand up and down like it's surfing. Start by asking a question related to your content. Teams will huddle together and make sure everyone knows the answer before raising their hand. The teacher will record in which order the teams raised their hands. Then, call on the first team and point to them which indicates that they must stand up, yell out their name and complete their corresponding action in complete unison. If this is completed, the teacher calls on any student in the group to say the answer. If that student responds with a correct answer, the team jumps up and lines up at a designated spot. Each team member takes 1 shot each (I use a miniature toy basketball and my trashcan). The team earns 1 point for the correct answer and an additional point for each shot made. Repeat with a new question. If a group does not jump up, yell their name, and complete their corresponding action in complete unison, they lose their turn, and you move on to team #2. If a team answers incorrectly, move on to the next team. I like to make points worth double or even triple to keep teams with lower points in the game until the very end. This is a class favorite-they often stay into their lunch period begging for more! (Special thanks to Ben Slavic for a student fav!)